Junk rats.

The sky took a slightly off tint, but all around nothing changed. John looked at the pile of garbage and tried to use craft on it, but as he had guessed before it was now part of the terrain and not registering as an item.

John put the hood on and walked discreetly between the piles of garbage, his saber in hand, thankfully he was right about the smell, it was still present but a lot weaker in the barrier (or maybe it was absent and what he could smell was what he had on him). He hoped to be able to sneak up to the first monster he would meet. He wasn't sure Stealth would work if he was moving but he tried not to make too much noise or quick moves anyway.

Suddenly he heard some rustling in a pile of trash, he hid behind a broken fridge and looked more closely. There was a big brown rat with what looked like metal bits coming out of its spine and metallic shard teeth. The thing was the size of a small dog.

Junk rat lvl3 creature: this huge rat lives in the junkyard and feeds on trash. It is quick and agile.
Sharp teeth: 10 armor reduction on target when bitting.
Junk eater: -10 item durability on critical hits.
90/90 hp

That was more like it, he could easily defeat this thing.

Magic Projectile.
12dmg
12dmg

Before he could cast another spell though the rat had dived into the pile of trash and burrowed in it. Without line of sight he was unable to use his ranged skills.

He looked around himself, it seemed logical that the creature would want to strike at his back. He heard a ruffling sound and turned back, striking with his saber in a nice clean move thanks to the techniques he learned to Kriegskraft

17dmg

Wait! That wasn't possible the rat was still at 73/90 he when the sword strike pushed it back. Where were the 24dmg he just did with his spell? He hoped that hiding in the trash didn't heal this thing, he had no desire to play whack-a-mole whit it for hours just hoping for a critical or an opportunity to strike a few times in a row.

Just as the rat was fleeing from him he felt a sharp pain in the back of his right leg.

-7hp

He was about to cast a spell at the fleeing rat, but the pain distracted him. He looked down and saw the rat from earlier biting his leg, already having another go.

-5hp

Despite the odd position it was in he managed to hit it with his saber and, once it flew back, to cast another Magic projectile before it vanished in the trash.
18dmg
12dmg
12dmg

He could see the rat was at 24/90 hp before its tail disappeared in an old washing machine.

There were two of the damn critters, he had to be careful. Rats could be in very numerous packs, besides with the hit and run tactics they used he couldn't just pull one to fight it one on one. He could finish this one if it was the next to attack and had to be ready for the next obvious attack to be a decoy.

He saw a rat charging him head on but, rather than face it, he stepped aside, letting the rat that jumped towards his back end up in front of him.

He quickly used Magic Projectile on both.

12dmg
12dmg

12dmg
24dmg crit!

Strangely neither of the rats died despite the critical hit. He looked more closely and saw that one was at 49/90 hp and the other at 54/90 hp. Those were the second rat and a new one.

He felt a jolt of pain, the other damned rat had just bitten his ass. Thankfully he had both his reinforced jeans and boxers on.

-3hp

Once again the surprise attack had distracted him long enough so that no rat was visible. The critters were engaging him in some sort of guerrilla warfare, striking by surprise and retreating into the trash. John soon noticed that his hp regen was a third of what it normally was and his mana regen at half. He clicked it in the menu and realized there was a malus to regen when engaged in combat.

It was worse here because the rats could make the fight last a very long time and he had no idea how many more were lurking around waiting their turn to attack. He had the instant refill from his bracelet and drinking Blue Boar cans might help, but he still hoped he wouldn't be caught in a war of attrition against a horde of rats.

He was ready when the next happened but this time there were 4 rats circling him, three wounded and a new one. He checked his mana: 110/150.

He used a spell on the rat with 24 hp and killed it in one shot. This evened the odds a bit and got him 25xp. He was at 765/800, if he won that fight he'd get another level.

He cast a spell at each other rat but only the new one got hit. While the spell said you couldn't dodge the projectiles they could be blocked and when the rats jumped behind some trash they hit that instead.

John had no way to get them out of their hiding spots and he just wasted 20 mp for nothing. And with his surprise at the spells failure the last rat escaped too.

He just regained a measly 6 mp getting him back to 86/150mp. He was getting better and better at anticipating their attacks and his high Observe skill allowed him to spot them as soon as they were in sight.

Sight! That's right! John checked his stealth indicator. Not what he hoped for, just next to the open eye he could see a blinking, red 14 and just as he was looking it turned into a 15. Something wasn't right.

Once again the rats attacked and now there were 5 of them, the three wounded ones and two new ones. John wouldn't be able to kill them all with spells, especially if there were 10 others ready to jump in.

He tightened his grip on his saber and charged a group of two rats while casting a Magic Projectile at them. Those were the two new ones and the 24dmg on each would help him get the higher hand in the melee fight.

He had decided to focus on those two and to ignore the other ones even if they attacked, he could tank a bit if it meant keeping them engaged in close combat longer.

He landed a strike on each of the rats facing him for 13dmg and 19dmg. But as he was trying to put down the rat that was now at 47/90hp something hard hit the side of his head, interrupting his action.

He saw a large hexagonal nut fall on the ground. Despite the protection his hoody offered he lost 13hp from that shot.

This wasn't something he could ignore, even if it meant letting the rats escape once again.

On top of a pile of trash he could see a strange creature. A massive rat, looking a bit like Master Splinter from the old Ninja Turtle cartoon. But this one was female, definitely female. She had 4 pairs of tits on her torso. The creature was holding an improvised slingshot and was aiming for another shot.

She was dressed with things obviously found in the garbage (and probably from a strip club), wearing 4 flashy neon colored and glitter covered bras. As a bottom she had some sort of extra short skirt (considering how short it was on her John had trouble imagining a human girl walking around in this without being arrested). There was a spear made from a knife taped to a broomstick planted in the ground near her and she had a saucepan on her head, held in place by a pink g-string tied to each handle and going under her chin.

John used observe on her.

Junk Rat Pack-Mother lvl 7 creature:
Bigger and smarter than most junk rats the Pack-Mother can use items and equip them.
Summoning the pack: this large female gives birth to each rat in the pack and can call them to fight for her.
Sharpshooter: she can use her slingshot to interrupt attacks and actions.
300/300 hp

"Well, fuck this life!" John let escape when reading the description. He wasn't fighting the rats, from the start he was fighting her and she had summoned them.